Arctic

“There are 32 million gallons worth of mercury, or the equivalent of 50 Olympic swimming pools, trapped in the permafrost, the scientists wrote in a study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. For context, that’s “twice as much mercury as the rest of all soils, the atmosphere, and ocean combined,” they wrote.”

A Russian Arctic expedition crew in factory-stock pickup trucks has had a close encounter with the gigantic Taymyr nuclear icebreaker.

It occurred as the team was driving on the iced Yenisei river, as the nuclear-powered Taymyr sailed a few meters away from them.

Evgeny Shatalov, one of the drivers, said he managed to run close to the giant ship and touched it, posting his claim on Instagram. He also jokingly regretted that no one on the team touched the icebreaker with their tongue, as that would surely bring good luck to the whole endeavor. When the ship passed by, it was some -50 Celsius.

THE ARCTIC CIRCLE (AP) — While it may be frigid and wet on deck, the crew of a modern icebreaker can expect creature comforts inside the ship, even saunas. Cabins on board the MSV Nordica are small but functional, with a desk, a TV and an en suite bathroom. Most of the 21 regular crew work 12-hour shifts as the vessel pushes through the Arctic’s Northwest Passage. It’s also carrying a team of Associated Press journalists who are aboard to document the impact of climate change.

Solar Forcing Of Modern, Historic Arctic Sea Ice

Only Slightly Less Sea Ice Now Than Little Ice Age

In a new paper (Stein et al., 2017), scientists find that Arctic sea ice retreat and advance is modulated by variations in solar activity.

In addition, the sea ice cover during the last century has only slightly retreated from the extent reached during coldest centuries of the Little Ice Age (1600s to 1800s AD), which had the highest sea ice cover of the last 10,000 years and flirted with excursions into year-round sea ice.

The Medieval Warm Period sea ice record (~900 to 1200 AD) had the lowest coverage since the Roman era ~2,000 years ago.

“A very interesting high temperature and low salinity hole has just been punched in the sea ice … directly above the deep ocean Gakkel Ridge Rift / Fault System,” wrote Kamis in early November. (The event Kamis is referring to took place on October 12, 2015.)

Massive amounts of heat pulsing from the earth

The Gakkel ridge is a gigantic chain of underwater volcanoes snaking 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) beneath the Arctic Ocean from the northern tip of Greenland to Siberia.

Russia is resubmitting its claim of more than 460,000 square miles of the Arctic, including the North Pole, as its sovereign territory, saying it has enough evidence to convince the United Nations that its claim is valid.

The Arctic, which is believed to contain as much as one-quarter of Earth’s undiscovered oil and gas, is part of a territorial dispute involving not only Russia but also Canada, Denmark, Norway and the United States.

This is the second time Moscow has submitted a claim in the Arctic. The U.N. rejected its effort in 2002, saying the Russian government hadn’t provided enough evidence that it had a right to the territory.

The Arctic ice pack has expanded dramatically despite years of doom-laden predictions that it was melting away for good.

British scientists discovered that it grew by more than 40 percent in 2013 thanks to cooler than expected temperatures, and say they were shocked at the speed of recovery in such a short time.

Three years ago Professor Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University forecast that the Arctic would be ice free by 2015 – or 2016 at the latest. And Al Gore made strong claims that the caps would disappear by 2014.

Martini Meltdown

By Dr. Klaus L.E. Kaiser

Nothing could be further from the truth. The ice cover in the Antarctic has recently reached a new all-(recorded)-time extent and the ice cover in the Arctic appears to be on a similar path. No wonder as the frost-free days in the Arctic, above 80 N have been fewer in the last two summers and the last winter in North America was brutally cold and long.